Olive's Ocean

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to the death of a young person and the nonconsensual recording of a kiss.

In Olive’s Ocean, 12-year-old Martha doesn’t yet have a concrete persona that she wants to project onto the world. This is in part due to her age, as Martha is experiencing a pivotal time in adolescence in which she and her peers change and emotionally develop. However, her introspective and contemplative characterization advances her lack of a self, as she is often internally preoccupied and non-participatory in action around her. Additionally, her preoccupation with Olive acts as a buffer as she discovers who she wants to be in association with what kind of person Olive might have been. As the narrative progresses, Martha begins to understand the person she wants to be, and she eventually divorces her identity from Olive’s so that she can begin to assume her own.

Martha’s lack of a sense of self is mostly positive, as it allows Martha to experiment with identities and confront her feelings and their changes. By attempting to embody Olive in real life and through her

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